On chilly autumn mornings for years, young men said goodbye to their loved ones and headed into a fate they had no hand in choosing.

Over the course of the Vietnam War, over a million and a half men were drafted into a branch of military service, and 61% of the men killed were twenty-one or younger. The choice to serve was not their own, but their commitment to their country was steadfast.

David Shea was one of those men. Drafted into service in the summer of 1967, he served for nineteen months in Vietnam in an Army infantry unit, and was awarded a Bronze Star for meritorious service. He shares his experiences from the war in his new book, When Soldiers Cried , published by Brandylane Publishers, Inc. His story is told as a narrative rather than a documentary, and the harsh reality he portrays in the book is powerful and candid.

Like many soldiers, Shea experienced both the positive and negative aspects of war. His book is an uncensored look at the physical and mental rigors draftees had to face in Vietnam, but he says he also gained self respect and learned skills that prepared him for life in and out of the military.

The book shares scenes from the battlefield, as well as how difficult it was to return to civilian life once the fighting was over.

"I wanted to bring the reader into the story, to bring them into the foxhole, onto the helicopter and to know how it felt," Shea said. "We lost a lot of great guys and it needs to be captured and understood."

Shea tells his story through the character of twenty-year old Sean Kelly, who struggles with the injustice of being old enough to fight for his country while still being too young to buy a beer.

"It was different when my dad flew in World War II. They were fighting to keep the world safe. With Vietnam there was no threat to America," Shea said.

The story follows Kelly through training camp and onto the battlefield, and no details are withheld when describing accidents in the field, injuries, and interaction with other soldiers.

Shea bares his soul when recounting painful events, like the loss of close friends and comrades.

For him, writing this story was an internal war. There were nights he didn't think he could keep writing. "I struggled writing some scenes. There were times I cried so hard that I couldn't see the keyboard and I don't know how I formed the words or made the spaces between the words," he says. "But it had to be told. I would scream and pound the floor drenched in sweat. I had an incredible amount of guilt for what I had been trained to do, but I knew I had to do it. I wanted to pull the heart out of the reader, to make them realize that we can't do this again."

When Kelly returned home, the world was a different place. War had changed him. The final line of the book is a plea, "Please, Lord. Please tell me it was all just a bad dream."

Shea says returning from war was no easy task. He enrolled at the University of Virginia for summer school and hoped it would offer a distraction. Unfortunately, school turned into a reminder of where he had been. The college days he longed for were no longer there.

"There were riots at UVa while I was there and the Kent State shootings happened, too. People were trying not to be drafted to Vietnam; they didn't understand what they were even fighting against," Shea said. "They were trying to not go where I had just come from. It didn't seem right."

Shea's life has been forever altered by the choices others made for him, and the images and effects of what occurred while in war will never leave him. He says he wrote the book as an inspiration for others-to show that hardships happen but that there are ways to heal.

"Survival is about the process of loss and rebuilding," Shea said. "People coming back from serving need to realize that it was a role they were asked to play, and they need to focus on themselves and figure out how to function. You've got to find a way to survive what happens to you."

Shea says he is torn as to whether or not he would want to avoid the draft if he had the chance to relive the past. Although the experiences he faced changed him and will remain with him for the rest of his life, he also knows he would not be the man he is if he had not had to endure the trials of war.

In the end, he has hope. "I hope future generations will never have to endure what I and others had to endure."

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